Crude-oil futures climbed into uncharted territory Wednesday, peaking above $ 80 a barrel and closing at a record high just below that level after U.S. government data showed that crude supplies dropped more than 7 million barrels and motor-gasoline inventories fell a sixth week in a row.

Crude for October delivery climbed as high as $ 80.05 a barrel in regular trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the highest level a front-month contract has ever reached on the exchange. The previous record was .70 from the regular trading session on Aug. 1. The contract finished the session at $ 79.91 a barrel, up 2.2%, or $ 1.68.

U.S. crude supplies dropped a third week, down 7.1 million barrels to 322.6 million, for the week ended Sept. 7, the Energy Department reported early Wednesday. Supplies have now dropped 14.5 million barrels from the mid-August level, though they're still up about 1.4% from a year ago, the data showed. The American Petroleum Institute confirmed the decline, pegged the size of it at 5.2 million barrels for crude inventories. Its total for the week stood at 321.5 million.

Motor-gasoline supplies fell a sixth straight week, down 700,000 barrels at 190.4 million in the latest week, the Energy Department said. They've tallied a decline of 14.3 million from the late July level.